This invention relates to a diving jacket.
It is well known to provide a back pad with a main belt used to fold an air tank along its body and a sub-belt adapted to be draped about the top of the air tank in the vicinity of a valve so that a main belt may hold the air tank on a jacket and the sub-belt may prevent the air tank from unintentionally falling off.
With a conventional jacket discribed above, it is certainly possible to hold a cylindrical body of the air tank on a jackets wearer""s back using the main melt but it is difficult to fix the top of the air tank since the air tank is relatively long. Consequently, the top of the air tank is apt to move uncontrollably, i.e., to get near to or away from the wearer""s back. Such movement of the air tank may often obstruct the wearer from freely swimming. The sub-belt, on the other hand, has its opposite ends stitched to a neck of the jacket to form an annular belt. While it is possible for such sub-band to be loosely draped about the top of the air tank, such sub-belt is not suitable to suppress a movement of the tank""s top.
It is an object of this invention to provide a diving jacket adapted to fix not only a cylindrical body of the air tank but also the top of the air tank to the wearer""s back.
According to this invention, there is provided a diving jacket comprising a back pad, a pair of shoulder regions extending from an upper end of the back pad on right and left sides thereof beyond wearer""s shoulders into a front body side, and a means to hold an air tank on the back pad.
The jacket is further provided with a strap extending from one of the shoulder regions to the other shoulder region via the upper end of the back pad and adapted to encircle a top of the air tank in the vicinity of the upper end and the strap has its opposite ends fixed to the shoulder regions and is adapted to be length-adjustable in at least one of the shoulder regions.
In one preferred embodiment of this invention, the strap is adapted to be length-adjustable in one of the shoulder regions.
In another preferred embodiment of this invention, the strap is adapted to be length-adjusted by a buckle or buckles.
In still another preferred embodiment of this invention, the strap is adapted to be length-adjusted by a so-called mechanical fastener.